Bayer Leverkusen 2-1 Valencia CF - Match Report

Bayer Leverkusen 0-1 Valencia CF

Goals: Jonas, Schurrle, Sam

Assists: Soldado, Kadlec

Possesion: 40%-60%

Attempts on target: 7-7

Attempts off target: 3-4

The match started in a calm tempo with Valencia CF being the more dominant side and slowly increasing the tempo and attacks on Bayer Leverkusen's goal.

The first chance would come in the 10th minute with Pablo putting a dangerous cross in the Germans penalty area that just misses Soldado, who still manages to get to the ball and passes to Jonas, but his shot was blocked.

Just few minutes later Soldado with a nice dribble after a Banega pass, but he was fouled and brought down, but the referee waved play on. Just a minute later Valencia CF did get a free kick after I believe Mathieu was fouled. Banega took it and passed the ball to Jonas who in turn passed in to the lonely Pablo in front of goal, but Pablo was too slow to reach and the ball was kicked out of his legs and the danger was cleared.

17th minute Pablo once again founds himself in a dangerous position after a Soldado cross from the right, but Pablo couldn't quite reach the ball. 3 minutes later the ball comes to Soldado after a rebound from a shot from I think it was Jonas, but Soldado managed to miss an empty goal from like 5-6 meters and hit the post.

Luckilly enough Valencia CF would find the back of the net just minutes later after a forced error by a Bayer defender who was under pressure from Mathieu gifted the ball to Soldado who then crossed in to the lonely Jonas in front of goal and this one put the ball in the net, no mistakes.

31st minute Soldado starts a counter attack by stealing a ball from the Bayer midfield, Soldado goes close to the penalty area and passed the ball to Jonas and he shoots, but the goalkeeper punches the ball, only for the rebound to come to Pablo, but he shoots straight in the goalkeeper.

This is the point I start worrying that Bayer would punish us for so many missed chances and I was almost right when in the 38th minute Diego Alves makes two brilliant saves in the span of a minute. First save was from a brilliant and powerful lob and the second time a reflex save after a shot from just few meters after a corner kick.

Bayer Leverkusen pushed hard, but luckily we managed to hold in the first hald in the closing several minutes.

The second half started with Bayer really pushing forward and putting Valencia under pressure as they searched for a goal. And their pressure would pay off in the 52nd minute as Bayer Leverkusen scores a goal with a cross from the left that wasn't cleared properly by Miguel and no one standing in Schurle's way he was able to easily score.

Just 3 minutes later Bayer would score again this time it was Sam from an counter attack. He was basically clear on goal on the left side and slotted the ball in the far right corner of the net with no chance for Diago to save it.

After this Valencia CF started playing again and started winning back possession slowly and gained some initiative, but things were moving slowly so Emery made few attacking substitutions to try and put some urgency into our attack.

It wasn't until the 72nd minute when Valencia had a decent chance after Banega released Soldado on goal with a great through pass, but Soldado once again failed to score.

Then in the 88th minute Jonas had a try, but his shot went straight into the hands of the goalkeeper.Valencia couldn't muster anything in the closing minutes and it was actually Bayer that had the last chance.

In retrospect I don't know what went wrong, but I've noticed several times this season the whole team looses focus and ability for like 10-15 minutes from the 50th to the 60-6th minute. We've seen it against Chelsea, Genk, Sevilla, etc...

Technical Details:
Bayer Leverkusen (2): Leno; Castro, Toprak, Reinartz (Friedrich, 46), Kadlec; Rolfes, Bender; Ballack; Sam (Schwaab, 90), Schürrle; Kiessling (Derdiyok, 80).

Valencia CF (1): Diego Alves; Miguel, Rami, Victor Ruiz, Alba (Canales, 65); Albelda (Aduriz, 82), Banega, Pablo Hernández (Reguli, 65), Matthieu; Soldado y Jonas,

Goals: 0-1: min.26, Jonas, 1-1: min 52, Schürrle, 2-1: min 56, Sam.

Player Ratings:
Diego 7.5 (MotM) - Once again man of the match. Had two brilliant saves and few more as well, basically keeping the team into the game so many times.
Miguel 6 - Had an okay match, should have cleared better for the first goal, but it was an owkward thing as that is where Albelda should have been, but he was covering the right flank in the first place, so there was no man where Miguel cleared. Still should take most of the responsibility for that goal.
Rami 6.5 - Best of the defenders, had several interventions and always in good positions.
Ruiz 6 - Did well generally, but exposed for the second goal and couldn't catch up to Sam.
Alba 6 - Not a particularly attacking display, but the only time he went attacking the goal from his flank came.
Pablo 6 - Very active in most of the first half and found himself in good scoring opportunities, but missed some good chances that should have been goals. Went missing in the second half though.
Albelda 5.5 - Made few tackles to stop Bayer from mounting attacks, but didn't provide any passing and generally went out of the way and didn't want to recieve the ball.
Banega 6 - So so performance. When given space he was very dangerous, but when under pressure made quite few mistakes and gave the ball away cheaply. Still provided the only passing outlay in the middle.
Mathieu 6 - Decent display as he was the reason Valencia scored after he forced the Bayer defender to error and give the ball to Soldado. Not a big contribution otherwise.
Jonas 6.5 - Was quite the attacking threat tonight, scored a goal and had few shots on goal and tries.
Soldado 6.5 - Provided the assist to Jonas for the goal and made few good passes towards Pablo and Jonas that weren't converted. Found himself in good positions, but what is the point when he missed them all and a sitter from just 5 meters.
Subs:
Canales 5 - Didn't do anything of note. Few touches and runs, but that's about it.
Feghuoli 5.5 - More involved than Canales, but failed to do anything of note.
Aduriz N/A - Not enough time.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen vs Valencia CF Match Preview

Bayer Leverkusen vs Valencia CF

Stadium: BayArena

19 October 2011;  20:45CET

3rd fixture champions league

Expected attendance: 30.000

Coaches: Robit Dutt and Unai Emery

The third fixtures of the Champions League are upon us and on the second day Bayer Leverkusen will welcome Valencia CF at the BayArena for a footballing spectacle, well okay maybe not quite, but this is going to be a very interesting match nonetheless as this is likely going to be the deciding match of who stays in the champions league and who goes to the Europa League.

This is a must win match for both clubs and a loss here will probably mean going down to the Europa League or worse yet maybe even finishing last in the group. A draw will not serve both clubs and will just extend the lock down in the group for one more fixture. So expect both team to go in it to win it.

Bayer 04 Leverkusen is a recent success story in German football, something similar to Villarreal in Spanish football. After a near disaster in 1996 when the club faced a relegation battle, Bayer Leverkusen established itself as a powerful side, offering a technically pleasing offensive style of play under new coach Christoph Daum, who was also helped by the signing of players such as Lúcio, Emerson, Zé Roberto, and Michael Ballack. Daum was later to be famously fired for a cocaine scandal that also cost him his ascent to the role of the national team coach.

With such players the club went on to a consecutive top 4 finishes in the Bundesliga and even challenged Bayern Munich and Borusia Dortmund back then for the title. Of course Bayern Munich strategy was and still is to purchase the best players in the Bundesliga from other clubs and that's what they did, taking Ballack and Ze Roberto from Bayer Leverkusen and had a terrible season, only for the team to bounce back next season and finish third place. From 2005 up to last year the team was kind of in the background of other teams and not really able to mount any sort of offensive towards the top.

Things changed last season when they finished second to Borusia Dortmund with the help of players like Arturo Vidal and the returning Michael Ballack in 2010/11. 

This season though with their best player Arturo Vidal gone they are not doing quite so good and are currently in 8th position on the table with 14 points. So far their biggest problem seems to be their defense that has been leaking goals and this is of course chance for Valencia to get away with the victory even with our weaker attack in recent weeks.

Bayer Leverkusen squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand has had quite the miserable week with a draw against Mallorca. But what is more worrisome than the result itself which was only achieved by Mallorca through a late controversial penalty is the way Valencia CF played. The team lacked cohesion, teamwork, vision and drive. It was like they were just random people put on a field together and run like headless chickens all over the pitch. The only good news is that our defense is still solid(hit in wood 3 times) and I'm expecting us to ride on its back for tonight's match. Maybe the team will surprise me and come out really strong and powerful, we also have Banega returning so that is good news, but somehow I'm loosing confidence that we can win this match.

Unai Emery has taken all the players with him for the trip to Bayer Leverkusen. The only player who is going to stay behind in Maduro who's season is almost over. He will be out for at least four months and that means the earliest he can hope to play is March when he is to regain some fitness.

Valencia CF squad:

Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves, Cristiano.
Defenders: Miguel, Barragán, Bruno, Víctor Ruiz, Ricardo Costa, Rami, Dealbert, Mathieu, Jordi Alba.
Midfielders: Albelda, Topal, Éver, Parejo, Tino Costa, Feghouli, Pablo, Piatti, Canales.
Forwards: Jonas, Aduriz and Soldado.

Technical details Bayer Leverkusen (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Leno; Kadlec, Reinartz, Castro, Schwaab; Sam, Ballack, Balitsch, Bender; Keibling, Derdiyok.
Tactics: ?

Technical details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Diego; Miguel, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Banega, Topal; Pablo, Canales, Feghuoli; Soldado.
Tactics: ?

Result prediction:
Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1-1 Valencia CF
Bayer are decent in attack and they are likely to cause us problems at the back, but their defense has so far in the season been quite poor and so this is shaping up to be a draw with Valencia CF attack too weak to fully exploit Bayer defensive weakness and Valencia CF defense being too good for Bayer attack to manage to score more than one goal.

RCD Mallorca 1-1 Valencia CF - Player Ratings

Guaita 6 - Wasn't really threatened, but was confident coming out and punching the ball out. Unfortunately didn't guess the side the penalty was shot and not his fault.
Bruno 5.5 - Did well in defense, but could not help out in attack and lost the ball too few many times in dangerous positions.
Rami 7 - Did well in defense and scored a goal. Wasn't particularity troubled at any time.
Ruiz 6.5 - Same as Rami, did his job well and never really troubled.
Alba 6.5 - Wasn't very convincing in defense especially when run at directly and Chori did get the better of him few times, but he did good going forward and helped out quite a bit in attack.
Albelda 6 - Good cover in the midfield and helped out immensely in defense, but lacks any passing vision.
Parejo 5.5 - Very ineffectual with lots of mistakes. Tried hard and had some nice crosses, but just didn't deliver too much.
Pablo 5.5 - One of the worst performances from Pablo this season. He did absolutely nothing. Couldn't tie up even two passes, his dribbling was way off and just a very poor match overall from Pablo.
Canales 5.5 - Same as Pablo. Was good in the first half with few nice touches, but completely gone in the second half.
Piatti 5.5 - Tried very hard on the left, but he just can't seem to dribble past anyone and his passes lack precision and creativity.
Soldado 6 - Worked hard and while he himself wasn't particularity threatening he set up few nice passes to his team mates. He lacked service all match long.
Subs:
Feghuoli 5.5 - A lot more dangerous than Piatti and the rest of the attack, but did not have enough time to influence the match and apart from few nice passes didn't have time to do more.
Topal N/A - Made one mistake when he came over and that indirectly set in motion the events that would lead to the penalty call. Did not play with his hands though and the referee is blind or payed off.
Aduriz N/A - Not enough time.

Unai Emery 6 - Decided to rest Banega, but looking from this point in time it was a mistake. Parejo wasn't able to influence the game and when Mallorca opened up and started attacking Valencia lost all possession.
I feel like Emery wasn't at fault for the result, as all players played pretty bad overall.

Referee -10 - If you want to destroy someone wait till the 92nd minute and blow the whistle for an unexisting penalty with no chance for the team to come back.

RCD Mallorca vs Valencia CF - Match Preview

RCD Mallorca vs Valencia CF

Stadium: Iberostar

15 October 2011; 18:00CET
8th matchday, La Liga

Expected attendance: 20.000

Coaches: Joaquín Caparrós and Unai Emery

The international fixtures are over and club football is about to start again with Valencia CF traveling to the town of Palma, Majorca at the Iberostar stadium to face the home team RCD Mallorca. 

The last match for Valencia CF was against Granada and resulted in a small win for us, courtesy of a Canales goal in the first half. Since then we've had few players go on international duty with their countries. Jordi Alba actually got his first call up to the team and also debuted as starter and played great, providing an assist to Silva for the first goal and defending calmly and easily. Other players that were on international duty were Ever Banega, Rami, Mathieu, Ricardo Costa, Maduro, Pereira and Jonas. Unfortunately Maduro got injured in training and recently had an operation and would be out for at least 4 months.

As far as Mallorca goes I think only Chori Castro was called up, as he's a regular in Uruguay since 2005, Dudu Aouate as well and maybe Pablo as well, but don't take my word for it on this one.

RCD Mallorca is the oldest club in the Balearic Islands, Mallorca was originally founded in 1916 by Adolfo Vázquez, a republican engineer, who named the club Junta Directiva del Alfonso XIII FBC after the then Spanish king.

RCD Mallorca has had a mixed start so far with 3 loses in the first three matches, but it has come around the last two matches and won against Real Sociedad and drew their last game with Osasuna away from home. Right now they are 9th position on the table and facing Valencia.

RCD Mallorca finished 6th in 2010 and was supposed to play in the Europe League, but due to the poor financial situation at the club, UEFA decided on 22 July 2010 against granting Mallorca the licence to play in the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League.

RCD Mallorca fired Michael Laudrup and brought in new coach Joaquin Caparros who is a very experienced and great coach that led clubs like Villarreal and most importantly Sevilla for 5 years achieving quite the success and setting up the team for great things in the future with transferring players like Jose Antonio Reyes and Sergio Ramos from the B team to the first team and earlier he also discovered someone by the name of Marchena. With the signings of Júlio Baptista, Adriano, Daniel Alves and Renato he made a team to be reckoned with, but of course the Sevilla leadership wasn't looking to win titles, but to make profits and one after another sold his best players like Dani Alves and Sergio Ramos to the current top two clubs. 

Anyways he is a very experienced coach and will deeply analyze Valencia's play and try and counter us directly. Mallorca players would also not be short of motivation for this match and will likely go 110% percent ready and try to get a positive result.

RCD Mallorca squad: to be announced...

Valencia CF on the other hand is fifth on the table with 13th points, same as Real Madrid and Malaga and only one point less than Barcelona and Levante who are top two in the table. Even though Levante are playing really good right now I'm expecting them to fizzle out in the next three or four fixtures, while on the other hand I'm expecting Sevilla and Atletico Madrid to start climbing and possibly threatening out position.

This week though we have an easy fixture considering and we should be looking to take three points when we visit Mallorca. We must take these easier games so that if we fail against tougher or equal opposition we have sort of safety cushion.

The last two weeks were for national football and Unai Emery had ample time to work with the team on the shortcomings, like the attack for example and I'd expect our goalscoring to be more proficient and improved.

Most players are available to the coach except for Hedwiges Maduro who got injured in training with the national team and Tino Costa who just got injured in training and the extent of his injury will be known at a later date. David Albelda and Mehmet Topal are fully fit now though and ready to play.

Valencia CF squad:
Goalkeepers: Guaita, Diego Alves
Defenders: Barragán, Bruno, Víctor Ruiz, Rami, Dealbert, Jordi Alba, Mathieu
Midfielders: Albelda, Mehmet Topal, Parejo, Feghouli, Pablo Hernández, Piatti, Canales
Forwards: Jonas, Soldado, Aduriz.

Technical Details Valencia CF (probable setups):
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Line-up: Guaita; Barragan, Rami, Ruiz, Mathieu; Albelda, Parejo; Feghuoli, Canales, Pablo; Soldado.
Tactics: High defensive line, all round pressure, interchangeable attacking trio, mixed passing.

Technical Details RCD Mallorca (probable setups):
Formation: 4-4-2
Line-up: Aouate; Zuiverloon, Ramis, Caceres, Chico; Pereira, Marti, Pina, Victor; Alfaro, Nsue.
Tactics: Low defensive line, park the bus, crosses and counter attacks.

Result Prediction:
RCD Mallorca 0-2 Valencia CF
RCD Mallorca just changed coaches two weeks ago and even though they have done decent in their last two matches they probably still are ways off tactically and individually so a team like Valencia CF should and must take advantage of that. I'd expect Emery to have worked with the team in attacking moves and tactics and I expect improvement in that area. Our defense is also pretty good, so I don't expect any leaks there.

Valencia CF players on international duty

Spain 3-1 Scotland; Jordi Alba
Jordi Alba had his debut match for Spain and he didn't disappoint. Immediately he grew comfortable and started playing to his potential setting up David Silva for the first goal. He continued to bombard forward and linked up well with former Valencia CF players Villa and Silva on the left.

In fact Jordi Alba outdid Sergio Ramos who played on the right and I think this just earned him a call up for the Euro 2012 tournament.

France 1-1 Bosnia&Hercegovina; Adil Rami, Jeremy Mathieu
Adil Rami was a rather poor match against Bosnia&Hercegovina as he allowed Edin Dzeko to score the opening goal. He did marshal everyone in the air, but this wasn't his best performance in a French shirt.

Jeremy Mathieu did not have luck once again and will wait for a other time to try and get into the French team. Right now it doesn't seen as Blanc will take him to EURO 2012.

Argentina 0-1 Venezuela; Ever Banega
Ever Banega didn't start the match, but was put in rather quickly in it after Argentina went down 1-0 to Venezuela. Surprisingly though he was unable to steer the match in favor of Argentina, but its hardly his fault as the whole team before him was performing terribly.

Turkey 1-0 Azerbaijan; Mehmet Topal 
Mehmet Topal started and played the full 90 minutes for the Turkish national team in their win over Azerbaijan.

Brazil 2-1 Mexico; Jonas Goncalves
Jonas once again played for the Brazilian team, but just like the last match he only had few minutes and wasn't able to do much.

You already know that Hedwiges Maduro is injured and Ricardo Costa did not feature for Portugal once more, just showing that Portuguese coach doesn't trust him, contrary to what Ricardo Costa claimed.

International players report

Valencia CF had quite a few players representing their national teams, but only a few actually played.

Argentina 4-1 Chile; Ever Banega
Ever Banega who was one of the first players to get called up for his national team played in Argentinas win over Chile of 4-1. Ever Banega played for 72 minutes and did a good job in midfield, albeit unspectacular until he was substituted.

France 3-0 Albania ; Adil Rami, Jeremy Mathieu
Adil Rami also played for France and was their main defender with several defenders being injured that used to be in the first team.
Jeremy Mathieu on the other hand wasn't even on the bench for the French team, but could find himself easily on the bench and even playing as Abidal is still not injury free, Adil Rami also injured himself and even Patrice Evra got injured and removed at half time.


Brazil 1-0 Costa Rica; Jonas Goncalves
Jonas managed to play for his national team, but only for a few minutes in the closing stages of the match and could not do anything in the time he had. At least he played a little bit.

Ricardo Costa, Cristian Pereira for Portugal and U-21 respectively did not play and Costa wasn't even on the bench. Jordi Alba also watched from the stands and did not feature for Spain and Hedwiges Maduro got injured in training and so he obviously did not feature and should be actually coming home in few days.

Maduro bad mouthing comes back to haunt him

Karma is a b****. Just about two weeks or so after Maduro came out public and said he wasn't getting enough playing time at Valencia CF and would consider leaving at winter, well he got injured in training with the Dutch national team and the extent of the injury is big and Maduro will spend at least two months recovering.

The MRI scan showed that its a deep fracture and this means that the earliest Maduro can start playing again is in 2012. This of course is bad news for Valencia as Topal is still injured, but he is expected to be back before the club fixtures begin.

Something tells me tough that staying home won't be so inconvenient for Maduro